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Tuesday, June 10, 2014

New Perry Center Director: Mark Wilkins

The Perry Center Welcomes Incoming Director Mark Wilkins

Mark Wilkins joins the Perry Center after nearly four
years spent working with OSD Policy’s Defense Institution Reform Initiative
(DIRI). He first served as the DIRI Latin American Program Manager,
coordinating the development of four programs in the Western Hemisphere to help
partners develop accountable, professional, and transparent defense
establishments that can manage, sustain, and employ their forces. Currently, he
serves as the Guatemala DIRI Country Project Manager, coordinating DOD efforts
in support of Guatemalan plans to reform and modernize defense sector
governance and bring modern business practices to the Ministry of Defense. He
also worked as a Senior Mentor and Instructor for the Joint Foreign Area
Officer (FAO) Skills Sustainment Program, an OSD initiative that supports the role of senior FAOs at the highest levels of
USG policy formulation and execution, with the goal of raising their competence
and situational awareness.

In 2010, then–Colonel Wilkins retired from the U.S. Army after 30
years of service, having served as a FAO in a wide variety of senior policy,
security assistance, and intelligence positions in the Western Hemisphere,
including Chief, Americas Division, J-5, The Joint Staff; Defense and Army
Attaché in Bogota, Colombia, and Quito, Ecuador; and Military Assistance Group
Commander in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Guatemala. He also served in Panama as
the Director of Intelligence (J-2) for U.S. Special Operations Forces in Latin
America, various other tactical and strategic military intelligence postings,
and participated in U.S. military operations in Central America in the early
1980’s.

COL (ret.) Wilkins’s education includes a Master’s Degree in Latin
American Studies from the University of Florida, a Bachelor’s in Political
Science from Western Carolina University. His educational background also
includes the Venezuelan Guardia Nacional
Command and Staff School and numerous other U.S. military joint and service
schools. He spent most of his youth in Costa Rica, graduating in 1976 from the
Country Day School in San José. He speaks fluent Spanish.

His awards and decorations include the Defense Superior Service
Medal (two awards), the Legion of Merit, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal
(three awards), the Army Meritorious Service Medal (three awards), and U.S.,
Venezuelan, and Guatemalan parachutist badges. He is also the recipient of
distinguished defense awards from the governments of Colombia, Ecuador,
Nicaragua, and Guatemala.